September 11 attacks

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September 11 attacks
Part of
Attack type
Islamic terrorism, aircraft hijacking, suicide attack, mass murder
Deaths2,996
(2,977 victims + 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists)
Injured6,000–25,000+[d]
PerpetratorsAl-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden (see also: responsibility)
No. of participants
19
MotiveSeveral; see Motives for the September 11 attacks and Fatawā of Osama bin Laden
Convicted)

The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11,[e] were four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world's five tallest buildings at the time, and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making them the deadliest terrorist attack in history, and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror, fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

The first impact was that of American Airlines Flight 11, which ringleader Mohamed Atta flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan at 8:46 a.m.[f] Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03,[g] the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both 110-story skyscrapers collapsed within an hour and forty-one minutes,[h] bringing about the destruction of the remaining five structures in the WTC complex and damaging or destroying nearby buildings. A third flight, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, flew in the direction of the capital. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers fought for control, forcing the hijackers to nosedive the plane into a Stonycreek Township field, near Shanksville, at 10:03 a.m. Investigators determined that Flight 93's target was either the United States Capitol or the White House.

That evening, the

withdraw from the country, and the last members of the U.S. armed forces left the region on August 30, 2021, after which the Taliban returned to power. Ayman al-Zawahiri, another planner of the attacks who succeeded bin Laden as leader of Al-Qaeda, was killed by U.S. drone strikes in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 31, 2022.[14]

Excluding the hijackers, the attacks killed 2,977 people, injured thousands more and gave rise to substantial long-term health consequences while also causing at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history as well as the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement personnel in US history, killing 343 and 72 members, respectively. The loss of life stemming from the impact of Flight 11 secured its place as the most lethal plane crash in aviation history followed by the death toll incurred by Flight 175. The destruction of the World Trade Center and its environs seriously harmed the U.S. economy and induced global market shocks. Many other countries strengthened anti-terrorism legislation and expanded their powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site (colloquially "Ground Zero") took eight months and was completed in May 2002, while the Pentagon was repaired within a year. After delays in the design of a replacement complex, construction of the One World Trade Center began in November 2006; it opened in November 2014. Memorials to the attacks include the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, The Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia, and the Flight 93 National Memorial at the Pennsylvania crash site.

Background

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda's origins can be traced to 1979, when the

Abdullah Azzam, formed the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), an organization to support Arab mujahideen who came to join the jihad in Afghanistan.[15][18]

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funnelled several billion dollars worth of weapons to the indigenous Afghan mujahideen resistance, a portion of which bled to the Arab volunteers.[19] However, no direct evidence of U.S. aid to bin Laden or any of his affiliates was ever uncovered.[20]

In 1996, bin Laden issued his first

Islamic jurists had "throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries".[22][23]

The

American people, attempting to force the U.S. to re-evaluate its support to Israel, and other aggressive policies.[26] In a 1998 interview with American journalist John Miller
, bin Laden stated:

[W]e tell the Americans as people and we tell the mothers of soldiers and American mothers in general that if they value their lives and the lives of their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after their interests and not the interests of the Jews. The continuation of tyranny will bring the fight to America, as [the 1993 World Trade Center bomber] Ramzi [Yousef] yourself and others did. This is my message to the American people: to look for a serious government that looks out for their interests and does not attack others, their lands, or their honour. My word to American journalists is not to ask why we did that but to ask what their government has done that forced us to defend ourselves.

— Osama bin Laden, in his interview with John Miller, May 1998, [27]

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden in 1997–1998

Bin Laden orchestrated the September 11 attacks. He initially denied involvement, but later recanted his denial.

crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people. ... We say that the end of the United States is imminent, whether Bin Laden or his followers are alive or dead, for the awakening of the Muslim ummah
[nation] has occurred. ... It is important to hit the economy (of the United States), which is the base of its military power...If the economy is hit they will become reoccupied.

— Osama bin Laden

Shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, bin Laden used a taped statement to publicly acknowledge Al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks.[28] He admitted his direct link to the attacks and said they were carried out because:

The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced.

I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses were destroyed along with their occupants high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy...As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America so that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.[34]

Bin Laden personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.[35][36] Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 showed bin Laden with one of the attacks' chief planners, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, amidst making preparations for the attacks.[37] Bin Laden had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List since 1998 for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.[38][39]

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al-Qaeda members

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after his 2003 capture in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Journalist Yosri Fouda of the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reported that in April 2002 Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his involvement in the attacks, along with Ramzi bin al-Shibh.[40][41][42] The 2004 9/11 Commission Report determined that Mohammed's animosity towards the United States, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, stemmed from his "violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel".[43] Mohammed was also an adviser and financier of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, the lead bomber in that attack.[44][45] In late 1994, Mohammed and Yousef moved on to plan a new terrorist attack called the Bojinka plot planned for January 1995. Despite a failure and Yousef's capture by U.S. forces the following month, the Bojinka plot would influence the later 9/11 attacks.[46]

In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operation's details. They are bin Laden; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; Abu Turab al-Urduni; and Mohammed Atef.[47]

Motives

Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a 1998 fatwā signed by bin Laden and others that called for the killing of Americans,[22][48] are seen by investigators as evidence of his motivation.[49] During his interview with Hamid Mir in November 2001, Bin Laden defended the September 11 attacks as retaliatory strikes against American atrocities against Muslims across the world. He also maintained that the attacks were not directed against women and children, asserting that the targets of the strikes were symbols of America's "economic and military power".[50][51]

In bin Laden's November 2002 "

Letter to the American people
", he explicitly stated that al-Qaeda's motives for the attacks included:

After the attacks, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri released additional videotapes and audio recordings, some of which repeated the above reasons for the attacks. Two relevant publications were bin Laden's 2002 "Letter to the American people"[62] and a 2004 videotape by bin Laden.[63]

[...] those young men, for whom God has cleared the way, didn't set out to kill children, but rather attacked the biggest centre of military power in the world, the Pentagon, which contains more than 64,000 workers, a military base which has a big concentration of army and intelligence ... As for the World Trade Center, the ones who were attacked and who died in it were part of a financial power. It wasn't a children's school! Neither was it a residence. The consensus is that most of the people who were in the towers were men who backed the biggest financial force in the world, which spreads mischief throughout the world.

— Osama Bin Laden's interview with Tayseer Allouni, 21 October 2001[64]

As an adherent of

non-Muslims are forbidden from having a permanent presence in the Arabian Peninsula.[65] In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwā calling for American troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Al-Qaeda wrote "For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbours, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighbouring Muslim peoples".[66]

In a December 1999 interview, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca", and considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world.[67] One analysis of suicide terrorism suggested that without U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda likely would not have been able to get people to commit to suicide missions.[68]

In the 1998 fatwā, Al-Qaeda identified the Iraq sanctions as a reason to kill Americans, condemning the "protracted blockade" among other actions that constitute a declaration of war against "Allah, his messenger, and Muslims".

al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque of Mecca from their grip, and in order for their [the Americans'] armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim".[22][69]

In 2004, bin Laden claimed that the idea of destroying the towers had first occurred to him in 1982 when he witnessed Israel's bombardment of high-rise apartment buildings during the 1982 Lebanon War.[70][71] Some analysts, including political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, also claimed that U.S. support of Israel was a motive for the attacks.[53][67] In 2004 and 2010, bin Laden again connected the September 11 attacks with U.S. support of Israel, although most of the letters expressed bin Laden's disdain for President Bush and bin Laden's hope to "destroy and bankrupt" the U.S.[72][73]

Other motives have been suggested in addition to those stated by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Some authors suggested the "humiliation" that resulted from the Islamic world falling behind the Western world – this discrepancy was rendered especially visible by globalization[74][75] and a desire to provoke the U.S. into a broader war against the Islamic world in the hope of motivating more allies to support Al-Qaeda. Similarly, others have argued the 9/11 attacks were a strategic move to provoke America into a war that would incite a pan-Islamic revolution.[76][77]

Documents seized during the 2011 operation that killed bin Laden included a few notes handwritten by bin Laden in September 2002 with the heading "The Birth of the Idea of September 11". In these notes, he describes how he was inspired by the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 on October 31, 1999, which was deliberately crashed by co-pilot Gameel Al-Batouti. "This is how the idea of 9/11 was conceived and developed in my head, and that is when we began the planning" bin Laden continued, adding that no one but Abu Hafs and Abu al-Khair knew about it at the time. The 9/11 Commission Report identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the architect of 9/11, but he is not mentioned in bin Laden's notes.[78]

Planning

Ground zero and surrounding area as seen from directly above depicting where the two planes impacted the towers
Map of the attacks on the World Trade Center
Diagram of the World Trade Center attacks

The attacks were conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented it to Osama bin Laden in 1996.[79] At that time, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan.[80] The 1998 African embassy bombings and bin Laden's February 1998 fatwā marked a turning point of Al-Qaeda's terrorist operation,[81] as bin Laden became intent on attacking the United States.

In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden approved Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot.[82] Mohammed, bin Laden, and Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's deputy, held a series of meetings in early 1999.[83] Atef provided operational support, including target selections and helping arrange travel for the hijackers.[80] Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles for lack of time.[84][85]

Bin Laden provided leadership and financial support and was involved in selecting participants.

Bosnia. Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in the United States in mid-January 2000. In early 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar took flying lessons in San Diego, California. Both spoke little English, performed poorly in flying lessons, and eventually served as secondary "muscle" hijackers.[87][88]

In late 1999, a group of men from Hamburg, Germany, arrived in Afghanistan. The group included Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.[89] Bin Laden selected these men because they were educated, could speak English, and had experience living in the West.[90] New recruits were routinely screened for special skills and Al-Qaeda leaders consequently discovered that Hani Hanjour already had a commercial pilot's license.[91] Mohammed later said that he helped the hijackers blend in by teaching them how to order food in restaurants and dress in Western clothing.[92]

Hanjour arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hazmi.[93]: 6–7  They soon left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher training.[93]: 7  Marwan al-Shehhi arrived at the end of May 2000, while Atta arrived on June 3, 2000, and Jarrah arrived on June 27, 2000.[93]: 6  Bin al-Shibh applied several times for a visa to the United States, but as a Yemeni, he was rejected out of concerns he would overstay his visa.[93]: 4, 14  Bin al-Shibh stayed in Hamburg, providing coordination between Atta and Mohammed.[93]: 16  The three Hamburg cell members all took pilot training in South Florida at Huffman Aviation.[93]: 6 

In the spring of 2001, the secondary hijackers began arriving in the United States.[94] In July 2001, Atta met with bin al-Shibh in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, where they coordinated details of the plot, including final target selection. Bin al-Shibh also passed along bin Laden's wish for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible.[95] Some of the hijackers received passports from corrupt Saudi officials who were family members or used fraudulent passports to gain entry.[96]

There have been a few theories that 9/11 was selected by the hijackers as the date of the attack because it resembled

Grand Duke of Lithuania, began the battle that turned back the Ottoman Empire's Muslim armies that were attempting to capture Vienna (present-day capital of Austria) on 11 September 1683. During 1683, Vienna was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg monarchy, both major powers in Europe at the time. For Osama bin Laden, this was a date when the West gained some dominance over Islam, and by attacking on this date, he hoped to make a step in Islam "winning" the war for worldwide power and influence.[97]

Prior intelligence

In late 1999, Al-Qaeda associate

NSA
intercepted a telephone call mentioning the meeting, Mihdhar, and the name "Nawaf" (Hazmi); while the agency feared "Something nefarious might be afoot", it took no further action.

The CIA had already been alerted by Saudi intelligence about the status of Mihdhar and Hazmi as Al-Qaeda members and a CIA team broke into Mihdhar's

State Department to put Mihdhar on its watchlist. An FBI liaison to Alec Station asked permission to inform the FBI of the meeting but was told: "This is not a matter for the FBI".[98]

By late June, senior counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke and CIA director George Tenet were "convinced that a major series of attacks was about to come", although the CIA believed the attacks would likely occur in Saudi Arabia or Israel.[99] In early July, Clarke put domestic agencies on "full alert", telling them, "Something spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon". He asked the FBI and the State Department to alert the embassies and police departments, and the Defense Department to go to "Threat Condition Delta".[100][101] Clarke later wrote: "Somewhere in CIA there was information that two known al Qaeda terrorists had come into the United States. Somewhere in the FBI, there was information that strange things had been going on at flight schools in the United States ... They had specific information about individual terrorists from which one could have deduced what was about to happen. None of that information got to me or the White House".[102]

[...] by July [2001], with word spreading of a coming attack, a schism emerged among the senior leadership of al Qaeda. Several senior members reportedly agreed with

Atef, Sulayman Abu Ghayth, and KSM. But those said to have opposed him were weighty figures in the organization-including Abu Hafs the Mauritanian, Sheikh Saeed al Masri, and Sayf al Adl. One senior al Qaeda operative claims to recall Bin Ladin arguing that attacks against the United States needed to be carried out immediately to support insurgency in the Israeli-occupied territories
and protest the presence of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia.

9/11 Commission Report, pp. 251[103]

On July 13, Tom Wilshire, a CIA agent assigned to the FBI's international terrorism division, emailed his superiors at the CIA's

Counterterrorism Center (CTC) requesting permission to inform the FBI that Hazmi was in the country and that Mihdhar had a U.S. visa. The CIA never responded.[104]

The same day in July, Margarette Gillespie, an FBI analyst working in the CTC, was told to review material about the Malaysia meeting. She was not told of the participant's presence in the U.S. The CIA gave Gillespie surveillance photos of Mihdhar and Hazmi from the meeting to show to FBI counterterrorism but did not tell her their significance. The Intelink database informed her not to share intelligence material at the meeting with criminal investigators. When shown the photos, the FBI refused more details on their significance, and they were not given Mihdhar's date of birth or passport number.[105] In late August 2001, Gillespie told the INS, the State Department, the Customs Service, and the FBI to put Hazmi and Mihdhar on their watchlists, but the FBI was prohibited from using criminal agents in searching for the duo, hindering their efforts.[106]

Also in July, a Phoenix-based FBI agent sent a message to FBI headquarters, Alec Station, and FBI agents in New York alerting them to "the possibility of a coordinated effort by Osama bin Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges". The agent, Kenneth Williams, suggested the need to interview all flight school managers and identify all Arab students seeking flight training.[107] In July, Jordan alerted the U.S. that Al-Qaeda was planning an attack on the U.S.; "months later", Jordan notified the U.S. that the attack's codename was "The Big Wedding" and that it involved aeroplanes.[108]

On August 6, 2001, the CIA's Presidential Daily Brief ("PDB"), designated "For the President Only", was entitled Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US. The memo noted that FBI information "indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks".[109]

In mid-August, one Minnesota flight school alerted the FBI about Zacarias Moussaoui, who had asked "suspicious questions". The FBI found that Moussaoui was a radical who had travelled to Pakistan, and the INS arrested him for overstaying his French visa. Their request to search his laptop was denied by FBI headquarters due to the lack of probable cause.[110]

The failures in intelligence-sharing were attributed to 1995 Justice Department policies limiting intelligence-sharing, combined with CIA and NSA reluctance to reveal "sensitive sources and methods" such as tapped phones.[111] Testifying before the 9/11 Commission in April 2004, then – Attorney General John Ashcroft recalled that the "single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem was the wall that segregated or separated criminal investigators and intelligence agents".[112] Clarke also wrote: "[T]here were... failures to get information to the right place at the right time".[113]

Attacks

Early on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001,

Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia.[114] Large planes with long coast-to-coast flights were selected for hijacking because they would have more fuel.[115]

Key info about the four flights
Operator Flight number Aircraft type Time of departure* Time of crash* Departed from En route to Crash site Fatalities
(There were no survivors from the flights)
Crew Passengers Ground§ Hijackers Total
American Airlines 11 Boeing 767-223ER 7:59 a.m. 8:46 a.m. Logan International Airport Los Angeles International Airport North Tower of the World Trade Center, floors 93 to 99 11 76 2,606 5 2,763
United Airlines 175 Boeing 767–222 8:14 a.m. 9:03 a.m.[g] Logan International Airport Los Angeles International Airport South Tower of the World Trade Center, floors 77 to 85 9 51 5
American Airlines 77 Boeing 757–223 8:20 a.m. 9:37 a.m.
Washington Dulles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport West wall of Pentagon 6 53 125 5 189
United Airlines 93 Boeing 757–222 8:42 a.m. 10:03 a.m. Newark Int'l Airport San Francisco International Airport Field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville 7 33 0 4 44
Totals 33 213 2,731 19 2,996

* Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00)
Excluding hijackers
§ Including emergency workers
Including hijackers

The four crashes

At 7:59 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 took off from Logan International Airport in Boston.[116] Fifteen minutes into the flight, five hijackers armed with boxcutters took over the plane, injuring at least three people (and possibly killing one)[117][118][119] before forcing their way into the cockpit. The terrorists also displayed an apparent explosive and sprayed mace into the cabin, to frighten the hostages into submission and further hinder resistance.[120] Back at Logan, United Airlines Flight 175 took off at 8:14 a.m., approximately the same time as Flight 11's hijacking.[121] Hundreds of miles southwest at Dulles International Airport, American Airlines Flight 77 left the runway at 8:20 a.m.[121] Flight 175's journey proceeded normally for 28 minutes until 8:42 a.m., when a group of five hijacked the plane, murdering both pilots and stabbing several crew members before assuming control of the aircraft. These hijackers also used bomb threats to instil fear into the passengers and crew,[122] also spraying chemical weapons to disable any opposition.[123] Concurrently, United Airlines Flight 93 departed from Newark International Airport in New Jersey;[121] originally scheduled to pull away from the gate at 8:00 a.m., the plane was running 42 minutes late.

At 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 was deliberately crashed into the north face of the World Trade Center's North Tower (1 WTC),[124] although the initial presumption by many was that this was merely an accident.[125] At 8:51 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 was also taken over by another group of five who forcibly entered the cockpit 31 minutes after takeoff.[126] Although the hijackers on this flight were equipped with knives,[127] there were no reports of anyone on board being stabbed, nor did the two people who made phone calls mention the use of mace or a bomb threat.

Seventeen minutes after the first plane crashed into the North Tower, Flight 175 was flown into the South Tower's southern facade (2 WTC)[128] at 9:03 a.m.,[g] demonstrating that the first crash was not an accident, but rather a terrorist attack.[129][130]

Four men aboard Flight 93 struck suddenly, killing at least one passenger, after having waited 46 minutes to make their move—a holdup that proved disastrous for the terrorists when combined with the delayed takeoff from the runway;[131] they stormed the cockpit and seized control of the plane at 9:28 a.m., turning the plane eastbound and setting course for Washington, D.C.[132] Much like their counterparts on the first two flights, the fourth team also used bomb threats and filled the cabin with mace.[133]

Nine minutes after Flight 93's hijacking, Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon.[134] Because of the two delays,[135] the passengers and crew of Flight 93 had time to be made aware of the previous attacks through phone calls to the ground, and as a result an uprising was hastily organized to take control of the aircraft at 9:57 a.m.[136] Within minutes, passengers had fought their way to the front of the cabin and began breaking down the cockpit door. Fearing their captives would gain the upper hand, the hijackers rolled the plane and pitched it into a nosedive,[137][138] crashing into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, at 10:03 a.m. The plane was about twenty minutes away from reaching D.C. at the time of the crash, and its target is believed to have been either the Capitol Building or the White House.[115][136]

Some passengers and crew members who called from the aircraft using the cabin air phone service and mobile phones provided details: several hijackers were aboard each plane; they used mace, tear gas, or pepper spray to overcome attendants; and some people aboard had been stabbed.[139] Reports indicated hijackers stabbed and killed pilots, flight attendants, and one or more passengers.[114][140] According to the 9/11 Commission's final report, the hijackers had recently purchased multi-function hand tools and assorted Leatherman-type utility knives with locking blades (which were not forbidden to passengers at the time), but these were not found among the possessions left behind by the hijackers.[141][142] A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on Flight 175, and passengers on Flight 93 said the hijackers had bombs, but one of the passengers said he thought the bombs were fake. The FBI found no traces of explosives at the crash sites, and the 9/11 Commission concluded that the bombs were probably fake.[114] On at least two of the hijacked flights—American 11 and United 93—the terrorists claimed over the PA system that they were taking hostages and were returning to the airport to have a ransom demand met, a clear attempt to prevent passengers from fighting back. Both attempts failed, however, as both hijacker pilots in these instances (Mohamed Atta[143] and Ziad Jarrah,[144] respectively) keyed the wrong switch and mistakenly transmitted their messages to ATC instead of the people on the plane as intended, tipping off the flight controllers that the planes had been hijacked.

Security camera footage of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon;[145] the plane collides with The Pentagon approximately 86 seconds after the start of the recording

Three buildings in the World Trade Center collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure. Although the South Tower was struck 17 minutes after the North Tower, the plane's impact zone was far lower, at a much faster speed, and into a corner, with the unevenly-balanced additional structural weight causing it to collapse first at 9:59 a.m.,[146]: 80 [147]: 322  having burned for 56 minutes[i] in the fire caused by the crash of United Airlines Flight 175 and the explosion of its fuel. The North Tower lasted another 29 minutes before collapsing at 10:28 a.m.,[j] one hour and forty-two minutes[h] after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11. When the North Tower collapsed, debris fell on the nearby 7 World Trade Center building (7 WTC), damaging the building and starting fires. These fires burned for nearly seven hours, compromising the building's structural integrity, and 7 WTC collapsed at 5:21 p.m.[151][152] The west side of the Pentagon sustained significant damage.

At 9:42 a.m., the

United States territory for three days.[154] The attacks created widespread confusion among news organizations and air traffic controllers. Among unconfirmed and often contradictory news reports aired throughout the day, one of the most prevalent claimed a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C.[155] Another jet (Delta Air Lines Flight 1989) was suspected of having been hijacked, but the aircraft responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.[156]

In an April 2002 interview, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who are believed to have organized the attacks, said Flight 93's intended target was the United States Capitol, not the White House.[157] During the planning stage of the attacks, Mohamed Atta (Flight 11's hijacker and pilot) thought the White House might be too tough a target and sought an assessment from Hani Hanjour (who hijacked and piloted Flight 77).[158] Mohammed said Al-Qaeda initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things could "get out of control".[159] Final decisions on targets, according to Mohammed, were left in the hands of the pilots.[158] If any pilot could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane.[115]

Casualties

One of three observable falls from the South Tower.[160] A similar photograph of a victim from the North Tower titled The Falling Man gained wide acclamation.

The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower single-handedly[k] made 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism in world history.[162] Taken together, the four crashes caused the deaths of 2,996 people (including the hijackers) and injured thousands more.[163] The death toll included 265 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors); 2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area; and 125 at The Pentagon.[164][165] Most who died were civilians, as well as 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and the 19 terrorists.[166][167] After New York, New Jersey lost the most state citizens.[168] More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks.[169]

In New York City, more than 90% of the workers and visitors who died in the towers had been at or above the points of impact. In the North Tower, between 1,344[170] and 1,402[171] people were at, above or one floor below the point of impact and all died. Hundreds were killed instantly the moment the plane struck.[172] The estimated 800 people[173] who survived the impact were trapped and died in the fires or from smoke inhalation; fell or jumped from the tower to escape the smoke and flames; or were killed in the building's collapse. The destruction of all three staircases in the North Tower when Flight 11 hit made it impossible for anyone from the impact zone upward to escape. 107 people not trapped by the impact died.[174] When the plane struck between floors 93 and 99, the 92nd floor was also rendered inescapable when the crash severed all elevator shafts while debris falling from the impact zone blocked the stairwells, ensuring the deaths of all 69 workers on the floor below the point of impact.

In the South Tower, around 600 people were on or above the 77th floor when Flight 175 struck and few survived. As with the North Tower, hundreds were killed at the moment of impact. Unlike those in the North Tower, the estimated 300 survivors

9-1-1 operators who received calls from people inside the tower were not well informed of the situation as it rapidly unfolded and as a result, told callers not to descend the tower on their own.[175] In total, 630 people died in the South Tower, fewer than half the number killed in the North Tower.[174] Of the 100–200 people witnessed jumping or falling to their deaths that morning,[176] only three recorded sightings were from the South Tower.[177]: 86  Casualties in the South Tower were significantly reduced because some occupants decided to leave the building immediately following the first crash, and because Eric Eisenberg, an executive at AON Insurance, made the decision to evacuate the floors occupied by AON (floors 92 and 98–105) in the moments following the impact of Flight 11. The 17-minute gap allowed over 900 of the 1,100 AON employees present on-site to evacuate from above the 77th floor before the South Tower was struck; Eisenberg was among the nearly 200 who did not escape. Similar pre-impact evacuations were carried out by companies such as Fiduciary Trust, CSC, and Euro Brokers, all of whom had offices on floors above the point of impact. The failure to order a full evacuation of the South Tower after the first plane crash into the North Tower was described by USA Today as "one of the day's great tragedies".[178]

As exemplified in the photograph

jump to escape the extreme heat, fire and smoke.[179] Some occupants of each tower above the point of impact made their way toward the roof in the hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access doors were locked.[180] No plan existed for helicopter rescues, and the combination of roof equipment, thick smoke and intense heat prevented helicopters from approaching.[181]

At the World Trade Center complex, a total of 414 emergency workers died as they tried to rescue people and fight fires, while another law enforcement officer was separately killed when United 93 crashed. The

Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) lost 37 officers.[186] Eight emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics from private emergency medical services (EMS) units were killed.[187] Almost all of the emergency personnel who died at the scene that day were killed as a result of the towers collapsing, with the exception of one who was struck by a civilian falling from the upper floors of the South Tower.[188]

Aon Corporation were also killed.[192] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated that about 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. Turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest 14,154 people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m.[193][page needed][194] Most people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings.[195]

In

Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon.[199]

Weeks after the attack, the death toll was estimated to be over 6,000, more than twice the number of deaths eventually confirmed.[200] The city was only able to identify remains for about 1,600 of the World Trade Center victims. The medical examiner's office collected "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead".[201] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 by workers who were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank Building.

In 2010, a team of anthropologists and archaeologists searched for human remains and personal items at the Fresh Kills Landfill, where 72 more human remains were recovered, bringing the total found to 1,845. DNA profiling continues in an attempt to identify additional victims.[202][203][204] The remains are being held in storage in Memorial Park, outside the New York City Medical Examiner's facilities. It was expected that the remains would be moved in 2013 to a repository behind a wall at the 9/11 museum.[needs update][205]

In July 2011, a team of scientists at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner continued efforts to identify remains, in the hope that improved technology will allow them to identify other victims.[204] In August 2017, the 1,641st victim was identified as a result of newly available DNA technology,[206] and a 1,642nd during July 2018.[207] Three more victims were identified in October 2019,[208] two in September 2021[209] and an additional two in September 2023.[210] As of September 2023, 1,104 victims remain unidentified,[210] amounting to 40% of the deaths in the World Trade Center attacks.[209] On September 25, 2023, the FDNY reported that with the death of EMT Hilda Vannata and retired firefighter Robert Fulco, marking the 342nd and 343rd deaths from 9/11-related illnesses, the department had now lost the same number of firefighters, EMTs, and civilian members to 9/11-related illnesses as it did on the day of the attacks.[211][212]

Damage

The World Trade Center site, called Ground Zero, with an overlay showing the original buildings' locations

Along with the 110-floor

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.[213] The North Tower, South Tower, the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC), and 7 WTC were destroyed. The U.S. Customs House (6 World Trade Center), 4 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, and both pedestrian bridges connecting buildings were severely damaged. The Deutsche Bank Building (still popularly referred to as the Bankers Trust Building) on 130 Liberty Street was partially damaged and demolished some years later, starting in 2007.[214][215] The two buildings of the World Financial Center also suffered damage.[214] The last fires at the World Trade Center site were extinguished on December 20, exactly 100 days after the attacks.[216]

The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned as uninhabitable because of toxic conditions inside the office tower and was deconstructed.[217][218] The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was condemned due to extensive damage from the attacks, and then reopened in 2012.[219]

Other neighbouring buildings (including

Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage and have since been restored.[221] Communications equipment on top of the North Tower was also destroyed, with only WCBS-TV maintaining a backup transmitter on the Empire State Building, but media stations were quickly able to reroute the signals and resume their broadcasts.[213][222]

A September 14 aerial view of the Pentagon during cleanup operations

The

World Trade Center Transportation Hub, which reopened in March 2015.[224][225] The Cortlandt Street station on the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was also in close proximity to the World Trade Center complex, and the entire station, along with the surrounding track, was reduced to rubble.[226] The latter station was rebuilt and reopened to the public on September 8, 2018.[227]
The Pentagon was extensively damaged by the impact of American Airlines Flight 77 and the ensuing fires, causing one section of the building to collapse.[228] As the aeroplane approached the Pentagon, its wings knocked down light poles and its right engine hit a power generator before crashing into the western side of the building.[229][230] The plane hit the Pentagon at the first-floor level. The front part of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, while the mid and tail sections kept moving for another fraction of a second.[231] Debris from the tail section penetrated the furthest into the building, breaking through 310 feet (94 m) of the three outermost of the building's five rings.[231][232]

Rescue efforts

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
on its way to assist the site on September 11, 2001

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) deployed more than 200 units (approximately half of the department) to the World Trade Center.[233] Their efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters and emergency medical technicians.[234][233][235] The New York City Police Department (NYPD) sent its Emergency Service Units and other police personnel and deployed its aviation unit.[236] The NYPD aviation unit assessed the situation and decided that helicopter rescues from the towers were not feasible.[237] Numerous police officers of the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) also participated in rescue efforts.[238] Once on the scene, the FDNY, the NYPD, and the PAPD did not coordinate efforts and performed redundant searches for civilians.[234][239]

As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who issued orders for personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD officers were able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.[239][240] With separate command posts set up and incompatible radio communications between the agencies, warnings were not passed along to FDNY commanders.[241]

After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders issued evacuation warnings. Due to

technical difficulties with malfunctioning radio repeater systems, many firefighters never heard the evacuation orders. 9-1-1 dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed along to commanders on the scene.[233]

Reactions

The 9/11 attacks resulted in immediate responses to the event, including domestic reactions; closings and cancellations; hate crimes; Muslim-American responses to the event; international responses to the attack; and military responses to the events. Shortly after the attacks, a U.S. government fund that was created by an Act of Congress named the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.[242][243] The purpose of the fund was to compensate the victims of the attacks and their families with the quid pro quo of their agreement not to file lawsuits against the airline corporations involved.[244] Legislation authorizes the fund to disburse a maximum of $7.375 billion, including operational and administrative costs, of U.S. government funds.[245] The fund was set to expire by 2020 but was in 2019 prolonged to allow claims to be filed until October 2090.[246][247]

Immediate response

President George W. Bush is briefed in Sarasota, Florida, where he learned of the attacks unfolding while visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School.
Eight hours after the attacks, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declares "The Pentagon is functioning"

At 8:32 a.m.,

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD scrambled two F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base
in Massachusetts and they were airborne by 8:53 a.m. Because of slow and confused communication from FAA officials, NORAD had nine minutes' notice, and no notice about any of the other flights before they crashed.

After both of the Twin Towers had already been hit, more fighters were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30 a.m.[248] At 10:20 a.m., Vice President Dick Cheney issued orders to shoot down any commercial aircraft that could be positively identified as being hijacked. These instructions were not relayed in time for the fighters to take action.[248][249][250] Some fighters took to the air without live ammunition, knowing that to prevent the hijackers from striking their intended targets, the pilots might have to intercept and crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, possibly ejecting at the last moment.[251]

For the first time in U.S. history, the emergency preparedness plan called Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) was invoked,[252] thus stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world.[253] Ben Sliney, in his first day as the National Operations Manager of the FAA,[254] ordered that American airspace would be closed to all international flights, causing about 500 flights to be turned back or redirected to other countries. Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and stranded passengers.[255]

The 9/11 attacks had immediate effects on the American people.[256] Police and rescue workers from around the country took a leave of absence from their jobs and travelled to New York City to help recover bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers.[257] Blood donations across the U.S. surged in the weeks after 9/11.[258][259]

The deaths of adults in the attacks resulted in over 3,000 children losing a parent.[260] Subsequent studies documented children's reactions to these actual losses and feared losses of life, the protective environment in the attacks' aftermath, and the effects on surviving caregivers.[261][262][263]

Domestic reactions

President Bush addressing the nation from the White House at 8:30 PM ET
Bush speaking to rescue workers at Ground Zero on September 14
During a speech to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush pledges "to defend freedom against terrorism". September 20, 2001 (audio only).

Following the attacks, President George W. Bush's approval rating increased to 90%.[264] On September 20, 2001, he addressed the nation and a joint session of Congress regarding the events of September 11 and the subsequent nine days of rescue and recovery efforts, and described his intended response to the attacks. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's highly visible role resulted in praise in New York and nationally.[265]

Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist the attacks' victims, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and the victims' families. By the deadline for victims' compensation on September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those who were killed.[266]

Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented soon after the attacks.[253] Congress was not told that the United States had been under a continuity of government status until February 2002.[267]

In the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history, the United States enacted the

USA PATRIOT Act, saying it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes.[268] Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying it allows law enforcement to invade citizens' privacy and that it eliminates judicial oversight of law enforcement and domestic intelligence.[269][270][271]

To effectively combat future acts of terrorism, the

warrantless surveillance of telecommunications, which was sometimes criticized as permitting the agency "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant".[272] In response to requests by various intelligence agencies, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permitted an expansion of powers by the U.S. government in seeking, obtaining, and sharing information on U.S. citizens as well as non-U.S. people from around the world.[273]

Hate crimes

Six days after the attacks, President Bush made a public appearance at Washington, D.C.'s largest Islamic Center and acknowledged the "incredibly valuable contribution" that millions of American Muslims made to their country and called for them "to be treated with respect".[274] Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes against Muslims and South Asians were reported in the days following the attacks.[275][276][277]

Sikh faith, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims. There were reports of attacks on mosques and other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple), and assaults on individuals, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh mistaken for a Muslim, who was fatally shot on September 15, 2001, in Mesa, Arizona.[277] Two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's family were urgently evacuated out of the country on a private charter plane under FBI supervision three days after the attacks.[278]

According to an academic study, people perceived to be Middle Eastern were as likely to be victims of hate crimes as followers of Islam during this time. The study also found a similar increase in hate crimes against people who may have been perceived as Muslims, Arabs, and others thought to be of Middle Eastern origin.[279] A report by the South Asian American advocacy group known as South Asian Americans Leading Together documented media coverage of 645 bias incidents against Americans of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent between September 11 and 17, 2001. Various crimes such as vandalism, arson, assault, shootings, harassment, and threats in numerous places were documented.[280][281] Women wearing hijab were also targeted.[282]

Discrimination and racial profiling

A poll of Arab-Americans, conducted in May 2002, found that 20% had personally experienced discrimination since September 11. A July 2002 poll of Muslim Americans found that 48% believed their lives had changed for the worse since September 11, and 57% had experienced an act of bias or discrimination.[282]

Following the September 11 attacks, many Pakistani Americans identified themselves as Indians to avoid potential discrimination and obtain jobs (Pakistan was created as a result of the partition of India in 1947).[283]

By May 2002, there were 488 complaints of

employment discrimination reported to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 301 of those were complaints from people fired from their jobs. Similarly, by June 2002, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) had investigated 111 September 11th-related complaints from airline passengers purporting that their religious or ethnic appearance caused them to be singled out at security screenings. DOT investigated an additional 31 complaints from people who alleged they were completely blocked from boarding aeroplanes on the same grounds.[282]

Muslim American response

Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks and called "upon

Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. Along with monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for victims.[285][286][287]

Interfaith efforts

Curiosity about Islam increased after the attacks. As a result, many mosques and Islamic centres began holding open houses and participating in outreach efforts to educate non-Muslims about the faith. In the first 10 years after the attacks, interfaith community service increased from 8 to 20 percent and the percentage of U.S. congregations involved in interfaith worship doubled from 7 to 14 percent.[288]

International reactions

President of Russia Vladimir Putin (right) with his wife (center) at a commemoration service in New York City on November 16

The attacks were denounced by mass media and governments worldwide. Across the globe, nations offered pro-American support and solidarity.[289] Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, as well as Libya and Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity".[290] The government of Saudi Arabia officially condemned the attacks, but privately many Saudis favored bin Laden's cause.[291][292]

Although

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasser Arafat also condemned the attacks, there were reports of celebrations of disputed size in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.[293][294] Palestinian leaders discredited news broadcasters that justified the attacks or showed celebrations,[295] and the Authority claimed such celebrations do not represent the Palestinians' sentiment, adding that it would not allow "a few kids" to "smear the real face of the Palestinians".[296][297] Footage by CNN[vague] and other news outlets were suggested by a report originating at a Brazilian university to be from 1991; this was later proven to be a false accusation, resulting in a statement being issued by CNN.[298][299] As in the United States, the aftermath of the attacks saw tensions increase in other countries between Muslims and non-Muslims.[300]

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368 condemned the attacks and expressed readiness to take all necessary steps to respond and combat all forms of terrorism in accordance with their Charter.[301] Numerous countries introduced anti-terrorism legislation and froze bank accounts they suspected of Al-Qaeda ties.[302][303] Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries arrested alleged terrorists.[304][305]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the United States.[306] A few days later, Blair flew to Washington, D.C., to affirm British solidarity with the United States. In a speech to Congress nine days after the attacks, which Blair attended as a guest, President Bush declared "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".[307] Subsequently, Prime Minister Blair embarked on two months of diplomacy to rally international support for military action; he held 54 meetings with world leaders and travelled more than 40,000 miles (60,000 km).[308]

The U.S. set up the

illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by the European Union and human rights organizations.[309][310][311]

On September 25, 2001,

fifth president, Mohammad Khatami, meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said: "Iran fully understands the feelings of the Americans about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11". He said although the American administrations had been at best indifferent about terrorist operations in Iran (since 1979), the Iranians felt differently and had expressed their sympathetic feelings with bereaved Americans in the tragic incidents in the two cities. He also stated that "Nations should not be punished in place of terrorists".[312]

According to

Friday prayers" temporarily.[318]

In September 2001, shortly after the attacks, some fans of AEK Athens burned an Israeli flag and unsuccessfully tried to burn an American flag. Though the American flag did not catch fire, the fans booed during a moment of silence for victims of the attacks.[319]

Military operations